Hiddink's Turkey out to put 'worst day' behind them

Turkey coach Guus Hiddink described his side's 1-0 loss in Azerbaijan in their first UEFA EURO 2012 Group A meeting as "one of the worst days of my career" and he and his men will doubtless be eager to make amends at home.

• Azerbaijan captain Rashad F Sadygov struck the decisive goal after 38 minutes on 12 October last year as Berti Vogts's team secured a surprise win against Turkey, which also owed something to goalkeeper Kamran Agayev's efforts in keeping a clean sheet.

• Dutch coach Hiddink said: "This is one of the worst days of my career. Our opponents outfought us and they deserved to win."

• Agayev saluted the home fans in Baku with his comments reflecting the popularity of Turkish football in Azerbaijan. "I am grateful to the fans who backed us, and not Turkey," he said. "We proved that we deserved their backing."

• The nations are the friendliest of neighbours despite Turkey's land border with the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan being only 15km long.

• Turkey's record in eight games against Azerbaijan now reads W5 D2 L1 (W2 D0 L0 at home, with Azerbaijan yet to score in Turkey).

• Prior to UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying, the sides had last met in Kayseri, Turkey on 2 June 2009, when the hosts clinched a 2-0 friendly victory. Their previous meeting in Baku had produced a 1-1 draw in another friendly on 12 April 2006.

• The only past competitive fixtures between the two teams came in qualifying for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. On 11 October 2000, Hakan Şükür hit the only goal as Turkey prevailed in Baku. Tayfun Korkut then scored either side of an Oktay Derelioğlu strike to give Turkey a 3-0 win in the return fixture.

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